Kenton is a neighborhood in the north section of

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

, United States. The neighborhood was originally a

company town A company town is a place where practically all stores and housing are owned by the one company that is also the main employer. Company towns are often planned with a suite of amenities such as stores, houses of worship, schools, markets and re ...

founded in 1911 for the Swift Meat Packing Company.

Geography

Paul Bunyan Statue in Portland Oregon in 2004

Kenton's northern border is formed by

North Portland Harbor The North Portland Harbor is an Oregon waterway or channel in Multnomah County, specifically in Portland. An anabranch, about long, of the Columbia River, it separates Hayden and Tomahawk islands from the mainland. Flowing generally northwest, ...

, the channel of the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...

that separates the area from

Hayden Island Hayden Island is an island in the Columbia River between Vancouver, Washington, and Portland, Oregon. The wide main channel of the Columbia (and the Washington–Oregon state line) passes north of the island. To the south, sheltered by the islan ...

. Kenton's eastern boundary is

Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Califor ...

and the neighborhood's southern edge is defined by North Lombard Street. The western border (traveling from north to south, respectively) follows North Portland Road, North Columbia Boulevard, and North Chautauqua Boulevard. The

Columbia Slough The Columbia Slough is a narrow waterway, about long, in the floodplain of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Oregon. From its source in the Portland suburb of Fairview, the Columbia Slough meanders west through Gresham and Portland to ...

passes through Kenton. Neighborhoods bordering Kenton are:

to the north; Bridgeton,

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

, and

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

to the east; Arbor Lodge to the south; University Park to the southwest; and

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

and St. Johns to the west. Kenton is home to the

Portland International Raceway Portland International Raceway (PIR) is a motorsport facility in Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is part of the Delta Park complex on the former site of Vanport, just south of the Columbia River. It lies west of the Delta Park/Vanport ...

and the Portland Metropolitan Expo Center. The historic site of Vanport, a public housing project built to provide homes for

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

shipbuilders, later destroyed by a 1948 flood, is also located within the current boundaries of the Kenton neighborhood.

History

Before the 1900s, Kenton was a farming community similar to other townships in the area like University Park and St. Johns until it became a

built by the Swift Meat Packing Company. By 1910, US$120,000 worth of buildings had been erected in the neighborhood with many fashioned out of concrete and brick. Two three-story brick hotels were built in Kenton in 1910. Plants from companies like the National Wood Pipe Company, Davis Safe and Lock Company, Union Meat Company and Portland Union Stockyards called Kenton home. A concrete apartment building was built by C. H. Carey costing US$22,000. In 1909,

Mayor

Joseph Simon Joseph Simon (February 7, 1851February 14, 1935) was a German-born politician and attorney in the U.S. state of Oregon. He was born in Bechtheim, Hesse, and his family immigrated to the United States when he was one year old, settling in Por ...

took an automobile trip to Kenton where he announced general improvements for the community like road pavement, street lamps and a

fire station __NOTOC__ A fire station (also called a fire house, fire hall, firemen's hall, or engine house) is a structure or other area for storing firefighting apparatuses such as fire engines and related vehicles, personal protective equipment, fire h ...

. The streets were still dirt in 1910, leading the Kenton Push Club to lobby the Portland City Council to pass a bond to pave the roads. After a long fight with the city council, the roads were paved in 1911. By 1913, US$300,000 had been spent on paving the streets of Kenton. The growing community soon demanded a park, library and schoolhouse. Just a few years later, Kenton was annexed with St. Johns by the City of Portland, becoming home to Portland's main stockyards and the center of the

West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

cattle trade for a time. A story of the "Kenton ghost" was published in the January 5, 1913 edition of ''The Oregonian'' which recounted several residents accounts of a shadowy figure lurking the streets of the community. Several prominent citizens came forward with their own sightings of the ghost including the secretary of the

Interstate Bridge The Interstate Bridge (also Columbia River Interstate Bridge, I-5 Bridge, Portland-Vancouver Interstate Bridge, Vancouver-Portland Bridge) is a pair of nearly identical steel vertical-lift, Parker through-truss bridges that carry Interstate 5 ...

Commission. Former

Albina, Oregon Albina is a historical American city that was consolidated into Portland, Oregon in 1891. The land the City of Albina would later be built on was claimed by J.L. Losing and Joseph Delay under the U.S. Donation Land Claim Act of 1850. The land wa ...

Mayor W. M. Killingsworth led a group of people who looked for the ghost. Kenton had a

semi-professional Semi-professional sports are sports in which athletes are not participating on a full-time basis, but still receive some payment. Semi-professionals are not amateur because they receive regular payment from their team, but generally at a consid ...

baseball team in 1916 and 1917. The Kenton Giants played in the Inter-City League with three other teams. The 1959

Oregon Centennial The Oregon Centennial was the 100th anniversary of the statehood of the U.S. state of Oregon. The day of the anniversary was February 14, 1959, but centennial events took place throughout the year. Festivities were held all over the state, with the ...

celebrations were held in Kenton. To commemorate the occasion, a large statue of Paul Bunyan was built at the intersection of North Interstate Avenue and North Argyle Street (just north of Kenton's historic business district on North Denver Avenue) as a reminder of centennial festivities. The statue still stands at the corner of North Interstate and North Denver, across from the Kenton/North Denver Avenue station, and is considered a symbol of the neighborhood. The statue was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on January 28, 2009. Directly across N Denver Ave from the Paul Bunyan Statue are the four blue hooves of Babe the Blue Ox, his trusted animal companion. The Kenton Commercial Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001 for its role in the development of the neighborhood and the city.

References

External links

Kenton Street Tree Inventory Report
{{authority control Company towns in Oregon Former populated places in Oregon Neighborhoods in Portland, Oregon